When we think of “peripheral” areas, we often tend to bring up their disadvantages compared to more urbanised places. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has overturned such thinking. In times of crisis, peripheries became a refuge for maintaining health, wellbeing, strengthening community ties and local economies.
The discussion “Redefining peripherality” gathers scholars from the Nordic and North Atlantic regions to challenge the dominant paradigm through the experience of rural areas in the Northern Periphery and the Arctic – during the pandemic and after.
Moderator: Ágúst Bogason, Research Fellow at Nordregio
Guest speakers:
- Liam Glynn, practising GP (community doctor) in an Irish village of just over 250 people, and also Professor of General Practice, School of Medicine at Limerick University, Ireland, and lead partner for the CovidWatch-EU-NPA project
- Anna Karlsdóttir, Senior Research Fellow at Nordregio, Head of the Nordic Thematic Group on Green Inclusive Rural Regional Development
- Theona Morrison & Thomas Fisher, Directors of CoDeL, the lead partner for the Northern Periphery & Arctic Covid-19 Economics Impact project. Both are long-term residents of Uist (remote Scottish islands in the Outer Hebrides). Theona is Acting Chair of Scottish Rural Action. Thomas is former Director for Enterprising Communities, New Economics Foundation, London.
The discussion is supported by the Nordic Talks Podcast series: https://www.nordictalks.com/
More information about the project “COVID-19 Economic Impacts & Recovery in the Northern Periphery & Arctic”: http://codel.scot/covid-19-economic-impacts-recovery-in-the-northern-periphery-arctic